A new generation of PC inadequacy as Crytek releases specification requirements for Crysis 3

As if the release of Far Cry 3 wasn't enough for many gamers to reconsider upgrading their PC hardware, Crytek has released their PC requirements for the next big benchmarker -- Crysis 3. Where the original Crysis was used as a benchmarking tool for years after its release, Crysis 2 fell short of its predecessor. The time is right, however, for a new game to push PC specification expectations. Hopefully for years to come, that one jerk friend can check out your PC and say, "Hey bro, this run Crysis 3?"

Fun and games aside, Crytek has done a solid job of creating a game with scalability. In other words, if your PC is some odd years old you can still expect Crysis 3 to run in a playable state. Seriously, 2GB memory and an Intel Core 2 Duo? What is this, 2008? Amiright? Check out the minimum, recommended, and high-performance requirements and see where you stand:

MINIMUM SYSTEM OPERATING REQUIREMENTS FOR PC:

Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8

DirectX 11 graphics card with 1Gb Video RAM

Dual core CPU

2GB Memory (3GB on Vista)

Example 1 (Nvidia/Intel):

NvidiaGTS 450

Intel Core2 Duo 2.4 Ghz (E6600)

Example 2 (AMD):

AMD RadeonHD5770

AMD Athlon64X2 2.7 Ghz (5200+)

RECOMMENDED SYSTEM OPERATING REQUIREMENTS FOR PC:

Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8

DirectX 11 graphics card with 1GB Video RAM

Quad core GPU

4GB Memory

Example 1 (Nvidia/Intel):

NvidiaGTX 560

Intel Core i3-530

Example 2 (AMD):

AMD RadeonHD5870

AMD Phenom II X2 565

HI-PERFORMANCE PC SPECIFICATIONS:

Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8

Latest DirectX 11 graphics card

Latest quad core CPU

8GB Memory

Example 1 (Nvidia/Intel):

NVidiaGTX 680

Intel Core i7-2600k

Example 2 (AMD):

AMD RadeonHD7970

AMD Bulldozer FX4150

Lo, who else recalls the days of installing Crysis only to ultimately be disappointed with the graphics, jumping into settings, raising everything to max and watching a slideshow of incredibly broken beauty. Follow that up with hundreds of dollars in new equipment, only to find the game still ran poorly at extremely high settings. I'm pretty sure it was designed to run poorly, to scam guys like me into purchasing new video cards.

Crysis 3 releases in February for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, but keep in mind the PC version is Origin exclusive. Pick up the standard version for $59.99 or the "Digital Deluxe" version with an assortment of downloadable delicacies for $79.99. Really, it's a small price to pay compared too the $500 dropped on a GeForceGTX 680 that will stuff your PC full of ambient occlusion and physics.

re: A new generation of PC inadequacy as Crytek releases specification requirements for Crysis 3

Sucks that it's Origin Exclusive. I dunno if I'll get it, I have yet to finish the story for Crysis 1 or 2 XD

I should be sitting somewhere between Recommended and High Performance. Eh, I'll probably be able to max nearly (a couple settings set lower or off for performance reasons).

My GPU is GTX 570x2. Better than the recommended (and there are two of them), but each GPU isn't as good as one 680 by far. It all comes down to how well the game scales with multiple GPUs. If it's good, I should have no problems, if it's bad...Well, it's still above the recommended.

My CPU is several generations old (i7 950, 3.06GHz).

I'm exactly in the middle with RAM (6GB). 8GB of ram for a game? I...don't think so.

Walnuts - I dunno about smoking it, but you should do just fine. Your GPU isn't at the "Performance" level of specs though. I don't think you'll get as much extra performance out of your CPU as you think either. If the game doesn't know how to take advantage of the extra cores, they are by and large wasted and your clock speed isn't THAT high (you chose more cores over higher base clock), unless you've overclocked it. It's sitting at around 3.7 (which considering it's AMD, would put it around 3.4GHz equivalent on the Intel side).

16GB of ram is a huge waste IMO, unless you do a lot of heavy duty video/graphics editing. I probably won't bother with 16GB of ram for several computers yet (my next might be more like 8GB, one after that might be 12GB, then 16GB). I might skip 8GB and go directly to 12 or so though, since I don't plan to get a new build for at least another year or so, and the next computer will last me probably 3 more years at least.

Don't get me wrong, you'll play it very well, but considering the specs they're suggesting for highest performance, expect to not to be able to max it out.

re: A new generation of PC inadequacy as Crytek releases specification requirements for Crysis 3

quote Shadow of Death

Sucks that it's Origin Exclusive. I dunno if I'll get it, I have yet to finish the story for Crysis 1 or 2 XD

I should be sitting somewhere between Recommended and High Performance. Eh, I'll probably be able to max nearly (a couple settings set lower or off for performance reasons).

My GPU is GTX 570x2. Better than the recommended (and there are two of them), but each GPU isn't as good as one 680 by far. It all comes down to how well the game scales with multiple GPUs. If it's good, I should have no problems, if it's bad...Well, it's still above the recommended.

My CPU is several generations old (i7 950, 3.06GHz).

It'll probably handle multi-gpu rigs with performance similar to Crysis 2, which for SLI users wasn't actually that bad, it was horrific with crossfire unless AMD finally patched the drivers (didn't happen within my 3 months of play).

I'd imagine you'd be able to max everything with that rig except for maybe CSAA if you're looking for a solid framerate, maybe a notch down on the tesselation as well depending on how its implemented. With 2x570's i honestly doubt you'd have to worry about anything more

re: A new generation of PC inadequacy as Crytek releases specification requirements for Crysis 3

bronze0800 I wouldn't worry to much, the recommended stats seem pretty over-stated probably to appease the enthusiast crowd. I'm not saying for a second that you're going to max out frames with the highest settings, but you should get a decent fps with some of the more intensive settings like tesselation, aa and grass physics (or whatever they're calling it) tuned off. Hopefully its like Crysis 1, you could have it melt a high end PC or run buttery smooth on budget hardware without all the effects.